A successful program gets cut by Congress while Houston deals with the consequences.

Politicians who wouldn't dream of touching housing program that help the wealthy, such as the mortgage-interest deduction, have no problem cutting those designed for families that struggle to pay rent. (Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle)

Photo: Elizabeth Conley, Staff

Maybe Congress thinks that cites like Houston don't have enough homeless families on their streets.

Why else would they approve a spending bill this week that fails to fund more than 100,000 federal housing vouchers across the nation?

The local municipal issues at City Hall often feel far removed from the partisan posturing of Washington, D.C. - but like those plastic bottles in the bayou, garbage has a way of floating downstream.

Now we have to deal with a $9 million hole cut into the Houston Housing Authority's budget. Around 28,000 hardworking Houstonians were on the waiting list for a program that helps them pay for a safe and stable home. With this unnecessary and cruel cut, they may have to settle for a family member's sofa or the backseat of a car or under a freeway.

This also means Houston won't be able to meet Mayor Sylvester Turner's pledge to house 500 chronically homeless people by September, according to Eva Thibaudeau, director of programs for the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County.

But the real gut punch will be felt by the 900 workers and families who had a once-promised housing voucher plucked from their hands. The first step on the economic ladder is a stable household. Even that meager level of help has been shut down. Apparently Washington has bigger issues on its agenda: The rich need a bigger slice of the economic pie. Corporations need to pay less in taxes and more on stock buybacks that reward their wealthiest shareholders.

Besides, the poor don't vote, and don't have money, so they don't matter in politics. Sorry if that's hard to read, but it is an undeniable fact about how our nation works today. And that's why every passing budget, whether in Washington or Austin, brings cuts to programs that help working-class families - those mothers and fathers trying to do right by their kids.

Politicians who wouldn't dream of touching housing programs that help the wealthy, such as the mortgage-interest deduction, have no problem cutting those designed for families that struggle to pay rent.

Maybe the problem is that these housing programs don't have an effective advocate at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Dr. Ben Carson is a talented surgeon, but by his own words he's not qualified to head up HUD.

Meanwhile, this scandal couldn't have come at a worse time for Houston.

"We've been sort of blissfully blessed over the last decade of having a more affordable housing stock," District J Council member Mike Laster, chair of the city's Housing and Community Affairs Committee, told the Houston Chronicle editorial board. "But as we grow and more people come to the city, costs change, and the nature of our neighborhoods change, that affordability issue becomes more and more important."

Never before have so many Houstonians needed help bridging the gap between paychecks and housing costs, and yet one of the most efficient and effective tools on our local government's belt has been taken away by Congress.

The harm done by this cut will have consequences that last for years. Studies like the groundbreaking "Moving To Opportunity" report show exactly how well-targeted housing vouchers can help break the pattern of intergenerational poverty. Maybe Houston will have to wait to lift up the next generation of kids.

The United States is the wealthiest nation in human existence, and Congress can't scrounge up $9 million to help poor folks put roofs over their heads.

Washington politicians will claim they cut wasteful spending - but that so-called waste will inevitably land at the steps of City Hall. And Congress expects Houston taxpayers to foot the cleanup bill.